


The Life of Dana Katherine Scully

by LeoraPhthalo



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Child Neglect, F/M, Rhode Island - Freeform, The X-Files AU, mulder is ignored, quonochontaug, scully has to move a lot, she is a bit fed up, teen!AU, teen!Mulder, teen!Scully
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-27 03:37:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7601878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoraPhthalo/pseuds/LeoraPhthalo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dana hadn't wanted to move house and yet, somehow, she found herself in Quonochontaug, friendless and having to start afresh again. To make matters worse, she finds herself having to provide support for a boy two years her senior, whose parents have been neglecting him for what seems like years due to an incident that he refuses to talk about to anyone. A somewhat reluctant friendship is forged between logical Dana Scully and scatterbrained Fox Mulder as Dana strives to find out what went wrong in this overlooked boy's life.<br/>On hold (Not sure if I'll get the inspiration to continue this, but we shall see).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Home (Again)

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! This is my first X-Files fanfiction. Please bear in mind that I am only 14 episodes into Season 1 of the X-Files, so I am unlikely to start introducing other characters from the TV Series.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy :)

**Chapter One: A New Home (Again)**

They had moved again.

Dana Scully looked around at the bare walls of what was going to be her new bedroom, sighing heavily. In her hands, she clutched the box containing all her personal items, each wrapped carefully herself with the perfect amount of bubblewrap so that there was enough to go around, but also enough to protect the delicate treasures from getting broken on the ride here.

 _Here_ was Quonochontaug, Rhode Island.

Yet again William Scully Senior, better known as Ahab to Dana, had been transferred to the Newport Naval base. Yet again, the US Navy captain had been required to uproot his family, mere months after settling in. It had happened so many times in Dana's life by now that she ought to have been used to it, but it didn't stop her from feeling somewhat down for the first few weeks whenever her father moved them all to a new home. On top of it all, they had been required to move right at the beginning of the summer holidays, so Dana hadn't even had the chance to spend some quality time with the few friends she made back in Charleston, South Carolina, her father's previous Naval base that he had been assigned to. Instead, she was stuck in a town which seemed to consist solely of Navy owned houses and summer homes, the majority of which were still empty.

 _At least I won't have to share with Missy anymore,_ she thought to herself, as she set the box down neatly in the corner. As much as she loved her older sister, Melissa Scully could be quite the troublemaker and in many ways, a room to herself meant that Dana was less likely to get into trouble because of her sister's rash behaviour.

The small redhead gave the new, stark room another sorrowful glance before she shuffled back downstairs to see if there was any thing to occupy herself with. She bypassed the two moving men in the entrance hall, who were attempting to manoeuvre their largest sofa through the narrow entrance into the living room, poking her head around the kitchen door.

Margret Scully has already started to organise the kitchen with Melissa, the surfaces covered with saucepans and plates. Missy was carefully taking the china out of the box, placing them on the sides whilst her mother was moving them into the cupboards in the way she wanted.

"Need any help?" Dana asked.

"We're okay for now," Margret replied, barely giving her youngest daughter a glance. "How about you see if your father needs any help? If not, you and Charlie could go and investigate the neighbour. See if you can meet anyone nice around here."

Ahab seemed as if he just wanted his two youngest children out from under his feet. Charlie had already dropped a box (fortunately only full of clothes rather than anything delicate), but Ahab was not in the mood to be taking any chances.

"Keep an eye on each other," he told Dana and Charlie, who nodded seriously in agreement. "Be back before six."

* * *

It was a strange town. There was the beach, which was a plus she supposed, but it was completely deserted. For the entire time they wandered around the town, they met no one. No dog walkers, or joggers. No one.

Charlie gave her a sideways glance. "Is it just me, or is this place just a little bit creepy?"

"It's not just you." Dana glanced around at their surroundings again. "It's too empty, right?"

Charlie nodded. "Is this what it is going to be like when it isn't holiday season?"

"Probably."

He sighed. "No point in even trying to make friends with anyone round here, I suppose."

"We'll probably move again just as we get settled, as usual."

They found themselves back at the beach with very little else to do. It had only just gone five and neither of them wanted to go back 'home', but neither particularly wanted to do much else other than lose themselves in their thoughts. The gentle swash of the ocean lulled the siblings to the point where their minds became completely void of thought and emotion. There they sat, watching the sun slowly creeping lower and lower in the sky.

* * *

Fox Mulder didn't really understand why his parents still took him to Rhode Island every summer. He had narrowed down their incentives down to two possible explanations: they wanted to pretend that they were still a fully functioning family to everyone else in their neighbourhood or that they would take any excuse to not have to be in the house where _it_ happened.

They were barely home as it was anyway; his father, William Mulder, made every excuse in order for him to stay in hotels overnight and Teena Mulder was only ever in the house to sleep. Between the hours of six in the morning to nine in the evening, she would be out doing god knows what. Mulder had been provided with a childminder up until the age of fourteen and after that, they stopped bothering to even think about their remaining child unless they needed him in order to maintain appearances.

Such as now.

Whilst in many ways, their summer breaks to Quonochontaug were a relief for him (he didn't like spending much time at his house in Martha's Vineyard either), he had to spend insufferable amount of time with parents, who still hadn't forgiven him for what had happened (not that he had forgiven himself). He made up for it by spending time with the small handful of actual friends that he had managed to make and he would go for stupidly long periods of time without food just so that he didn't have to be in his parents' presence, going back to the summer house for brief periods only when he got too hungry or too tired that even his insomnia lay low for a bit, letting him catch a few hours before he was back outside.

It wasn't long before they were travelling down the familiar road into Quonochontaug. Mulder gazed listlessly out of the window, looking out in the direction of the sea, trying to note if anything had changed since their last trip down here. They had come fairly early in the summer to the house this year, so the majority of the houses still appeared to be empty.

He noted one moving van in the driveway of one of the houses that the US Navy provided for its higher ranking officers. The van itself was almost empty and three figures stood outside, talking to the moving people. The women, obviously mother and daughter, both had red curls that had been pulled neatly into practical ponytails whereas the man, presumably the husband and father of the women, had the short cropped hair typical Naval officer, whether they be of high or low rank. The man was most definitely high up in the Navy hierarchy otherwise a house would not be provided under their expenses. Low ranking officers did not get shifted around much from base to base, unless they had been put under reprimand, so the Navy never bothered putting their house rent under expenses, whereas captains and the like were frequently given promotions or shunted around to bases they were needed more and therefore got that extra job perk.

What Mulder was trying to work out was why it seemed that this was only a three person family. The house was much too large to have been given to a family that small, never mind how influential he may be in the Navy itself. This meant that there was someone else, at least one other child, that was part of this family. All he needed to do was find them…

His father had driven on whilst Mulder had been slowly profiling this new family, finally slowing down and pulling into the driveway of their rather grand summer house. His parents had always had more money than sense. It had been great when he was younger— money in a family gave a child a certain amount of freedom to explore whatever they wanted without having to worry themselves over the financial aspect— but now, he could see how much being wealthy had slowly corrupted them.

He got out of the car silently, pulling his bag of clothes out of the boot of the car as his father unlocked the house. Not a word was uttered between them until Mulder had dumped his bag in the room that wouldn't get slept in for at least a week until he absolutely had to and announced that he was going out. Teena attempted some semblance of normalcy, telling her son to stay safe, giving him a stiff hug. William simply nodded coldly before resuming his frown at the cold fireplace that they had never needed to use.

The weather was good and was likely to stay fairly nice well into the evening. He glanced at his watch briefly, noting that it was only half five and it would be another couple of hours before it even began to get dark. He wandered down to the beach, figuring that he could at least kill some hours relaxing in the evening light before he went UFO spotting.

He was somewhat surprised to find that there were already two people sat in his favourite spot. It didn't take him long to work out that they were the missing members of the navy family; their hair was the same shade of red, although the boy had a similar crop cut as the father.

The boy turned around as Mulder walked towards them, the crunch of the pebbles beneath his feet giving him away. The girl didn't stir.

"Hi." He gave a little shy wave, shifting slightly.

Mulder gave a little smile and waved back "Hi, mind if I sit?"

The boy shrugged. "Sure, but mind you don't wake my sister. She is in one of her moods and probably won't appreciate it, considering we have about twenty minutes before we have to head back."

He nodded and perched himself on the other side of the boy, not wanting to disturb the girl at all costs. He couldn't afford to make the wrong impression; he had very few friends as it was. "My name is Fox Mulder, but you can call me Mulder."

"I'm Charlie Scully. Dana here is my older sister." He didn't comment on his unusual first name, nor seemed fazed that he had asked him to call him by his surname. His blue eyes simply surveyed him carefully before he turned back to look at the ocean.

"I noticed your family moving in. Your father's in the navy, right?"

"Captain William Scully, yeah. Older brother joined up too. He left home two years ago and went straight into training."

"So, there are three of you at home?"

"Yeah. Our older sister didn't come with us to check out the town. She's helping Mom and Dad moving in. They didn't want me and Dana to get in the way, so they sent us out to explore. But we weren't feeling particularly up to exploring today." Charlie paused and looked at his sister. "She's a bit down to be honest," he finished, glancing down at his sleeping sister, who was leaning in a rather uncomfortable position on his shoulder.

Mulder took a moment to give the girl a good look. She was smaller than her little brother— Charlie had probably been through a growth spurt recently— and seemed tense, despite being asleep, barely moving at all except for the rapid movement of her eyes beneath her eyelids. _She's dreaming._ "Why is she down?" he asked.

"Probably because we had to move again. Dad seems to get moved around a lot, so we've been all over the states for his job. She is always like this for the first few days."

Mulder nodded, but wasn't sure what else to say. "How do you feel then?" he settled with.

"Alright, I guess. I mean, I wish I didn't have to keep starting over with friendships, but at the same time, I have been able to see quite a lot of the states. That is always interesting. I don't dislike traveling." Charlie gave him a small smile, before glancing down at his watch. "We should probably be getting back. Do you live here or…?"

"We have a summer house, but I won't be there much. You'll see me around."

Charlie moved to stand up, waking his sister up in the process. Her eyes snapped open and she gave a groan, not noticing Mulder. "Charlie, what time is it?" she warbled, voice thick with sleep.

"Time for us to be getting back."

She finally turned around to face Mulder, who gave her a smile and waved. Her sharp blue eyes that had a smattering of green to them narrowed as she moved sharply away from him. "Who is this," she asked, her voice clear of any trace that she had been asleep not two seconds ago.

"Fox Mulder," Charlie introduced. "He's just arrived for the summer. He'll be around town for the next month or so, right?"

Mulder nodded. He could see that she hadn't let her guard down yet, but she obliged him with a small smile, holding out her hand for him to shake. "Hello Fox, my name is Dana Scully." It surprised him that she also hadn't batted an eyelid at his first name, but there was no doubt the two of them would run home and talk about him as soon as they could in private.

"I'd prefer it if you just called me Mulder," he said, taking her hand, giving it a quick, awkward shake. Girls never usually offered their hand whilst introducing themselves; it was something he only ever had to do with the business partners that his father used to bring home so he felt a bit thrown off by Dana's air of strict professionalism.

She nodded curtly. "Mulder," she corrected. "We need to get home now, but we'll see you around town I suppose." She gave him a small wave before tugging at Charlie's jacket, a subtle gesture that would have escaped Mulder's attention had he been somewhat less perceptive than he was. She didn't stop to wait for her brother to follow, stalking away quickly with her arms wrapped around herself as a buffer to the wind that was beginning to whip up.

"Sorry about that," Charlie apologised. "We'll probably be unpacking the rest of our stuff tomorrow, but if we can, we'll go down to the beach in the afternoon, alright?"

"Sure. I don't think your sister likes me much."

"She'll get there. You aren't seeing her at her best. She can be great fun when she isn't feeling sorry for herself. And anyway, you seem nice enough. She'll warm up to you, as soon as she is feeling better." Charlie gave him a small smile of encouragement before turning to chase after his sister, waving back at him.

They went, Dana walking stiffly, standing as tall as she could, her brother practically skipping next to her, launching animatedly into a discussion with her that Mulder could only hear the occasional word from, not quite enough to discern what was being said between the two siblings. It didn't take them long to disappear from sight round a corner and Mulder couldn't help but sigh dejectedly, wondering if this was going to be yet another occasion in which he had succeeded in scaring off potential friends.

He hadn't even mentioned aliens.


	2. Being Nice

Charlie gave Dana a glare as they headed up the road leading to their new house. "You could have been a bit nicer to Mulder, you know."

She returned the glare. "I don't know him. I was asleep! You were the one getting chummy with a random stranger. Whilst I was asleep, might I add. It's not exactly how I wanted a random stranger to meet me."

"Don't you know how to make friends, Dana? You talk to people. If you get on, you become friends. If it doesn't work, you let it go. You didn't even give him a chance. And," Charlie held up his finger as she opened her mouth to protest again, "I didn't wake you because I know how much you needed to sleep. You barely slept at all on the journey here."

"I don't care. And there's not much point in trying to make friends when Dad is going to get moved again in another year."

"That shouldn't stop you from trying. And you never know. Dad might get a more permanent position and we might end up hanging around here for longer."

Dana rolled her eyes. "Doubt it," she muttered, but didn't pursue the argument. If she wasn't up for making friends at the moment, she didn't need to listen to her younger brother's friendship advice.

They made it back home just in time. The moving van had left, making the driveway looking somewhat barren. Boxes cluttered most of the rooms, but the furniture had already been moved into their permanent places. Maggie had almost finished cooking their evening meal, the first meal they would have together as a family in their new house. Missy had already set the table and had gone to help Ahab with unpacking boxes in the living room.

Their father looked up as Dana and Charlie walked in, giving them a smile. He seemed more relaxed than earlier, probably because the big jobs when it came to moving had already been completed. "Did you have a good afternoon?"

"We met a kid who lives around here," Charlie said, excitedly. "His name is Fox Mulder and his parents own a summer house around here. It sounds like he'll be here during the summer months."

Ahab looked at his youngest son with interest. "Was he nice?" he asked.

"He was, although a little quiet. But that was probably because I was talking too much."

"I hope you didn't scare him off," Ahab teased. "Are you planning on meeting Fox again?"

"He likes to be called Mulder. I said if I was free tomorrow afternoon, I would meet him down at the beach."

Their father nodded. "That sounds fine. I probably need to get down to Newport tomorrow anyway, so I don't think there would be anything else planned. What about you, Starbuck? What do you think about this town?"

She shrugged. "It's alright. Bit empty at the moment, but the beach is nice."

Maggie poked her head through the door. "How old is this boy you met, Charlie?"

Charlie thought a moment. "He's older than me and Dana. I'd say Missy's age probably, around 17."

Dana rolled her eyes. She knew what her mother was up to. Maggie couldn't resist a little matchmaking. The way that she pretended to be disinterested in the information, punctuating it with a little "oh," slipping out of the room with a glint in her eye infuriated Dana, but she stayed quiet. She would only be at the receiving end of her mother's matchmaking if Missy wasn't interested (and she rarely wasn't) and it only ever got serious if the boy got invited round for dinner by her parents. Somehow, Dana didn't think Mulder was going to stick around long enough to get that sort of attention from her parents. He didn't seem like the sort of guy who was interested in being with company anyway, so she was safe for now.

* * *

Dinner was eaten in relative quiet. Her father lead the prayer before they all tucked into the meal in silence. Without Bill at home, the number of dinner table arguments had drastically fallen in numbers. Not that Dana missed the heated discussions that often cropped up between her two older siblings, but she did like some sort of conversation whilst she was eating. What with her father being at home, she felt like it was another missed opportunity to spend more time with him.

She and Charlie tidied away the dishes without protest, knowing how much work Missy and their parents had done today. It took longer than usual because they had to work out where Maggie had decided to put everything in the kitchen; by the time they had finished, it was already eight.

She hadn't had a proper look at her new bedroom since they arrived at the house. Her bed had already been moved in, its bare skeleton and mattress stood up in the middle of the floor, the matching chest of drawers and the desk standing next to it. Her parents often left the last bit of organisation down to their children, knowing that they liked to set up their rooms in the way they wanted.

Each bedroom had a built-in wardrobe, spacious enough to hang clothes and tidy shoes into, plus an extra shelf that ran along the top above the hangers, which was more than what the last house had. Not that Dana would be able to reach the top shelf without a chair, but it would be a good space to put stuff she wasn't intending to ever unpack until her father got a permanent placement or until she left home.

She gave it a little thought before she set herself to shifting the furniture into their permanent positions. After a moment, she moved the chest of drawers to the far corner, tucked underneath the set of shelves that were already set into the wall. The bed was shunted to the opposite wall, the window framing the space between the two pieces of furniture. She moved the desk next to the drawers, pleased to see that there was a perfect amount of space for it to fit between the edge of the drawers and the doorframe of the wardrobe.

Behind the door, the boxes full of her clothes stood stacked on top of the box full of her books. She would leave those until tomorrow to sort out, only rummaging through the top box to find a pair of pyjamas to wear. It took her all of two minutes to make up her bed and pull on her night clothes before wandering out of her room to find out where the toothbrushes and toiletries had been tidied off to so she could finish getting ready for bed.

* * *

A heatwave was on its way; even with the window open, it was far too hot. Dana tossed and turned, waking up every other hour. At two in the morning, she gave up trying to sleep and went to sit on her window ledge. The cooler air was actually able to reach her as she perched on the wide sill by the open window. Her bedroom looked out over their front drive, the house far enough away from the road that it still felt fairly secluded and, with no neighbours to the front of the house save the flat sea, she finally managed to relax.

It was then that she noticed the shadowy figure flitting across the road to the beach.

She gave a little start, surprised by the fact there was someone out and about at this godforsaken time of night. Squinting slightly, she realised that she recognised the figure. It was the boy from earlier, this Mulder.

Dana frowned. _What is he doing? Why isn't he at home?_

Without really thinking it through, she opened the window wider and lowered herself down onto the porch roof that was positioned under her window. Glancing around to check if she was going unobserved, she leapt off the porch roof without making a sound except for the slight gasp she exhaled as she landed barefoot on the paved drive. She pelted down to the beach, trying not to lose sight of the skinny boy that was now practically in the water.

He must have heard her coming the moment she hit the sand. Dana watched him turn round in surprise, almost falling over, hands held up in defence. It was only when the two of them were close enough that despite the relative darkness they could distinguish each other's features did Mulder relax and drop his arms, giving Dana a smile.

"Hello again," he said. "What are you doing up this late?"

"I could ask you the same question," she said, crossing her arms disapprovingly.

"I'm avoiding my parents," he said, pulling off his shoes and socks, not really looking at her.

Dana frowned, puzzled. "Won't they get worried?"

Mulder shrugged. "They won't care. Or notice." He sunk his toes into the damp sand, the water washing gently over them as the waves rolled in. Finally, he looked back up at her. "On the other hand, I'm pretty sure your parents would get a fright if they found your bed empty."

"They always sleep through the night. Mum says it's because she is trying to catch up on all the sleep she lost when we were small. Dad is part of the navy, so he can sleep through anything. They have to sleep in shifts so he has to be able to block out background noise. The only things that wake him up are his alarm or the ship's alarm. Why are you avoiding your parents?"

"They don't want me around. It's better this way."

"What, you not having a bed to sleep in because your parents don't want you in the house? You know that's neglect."

Mulder shrugged again. She didn't know why, but the noncommittal way he just brushed off her concerns infuriated her. "I kind of deserve it anyway," he said, as he dumped his shoes on the ground and rolled up his trousers to his knees. "Come on, Dana. If you are going to be out here, might as well enjoy a spot of paddling." And he waddled into the sea, the gentle waves steadily rising up around his legs until they only just began to dampen the fabric that was wrapped up around his thighs.

"Deserve it? You what?" she half-yelled, not loud enough for the noise to reach the houses. She stumbled through the water towards him to pull him round to face her.

She misjudged her strength. The tug was hard enough to make the boy unbalanced and he fell over with a yelp.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Dana darted forwards immediately, not really caring that the legs of her pyjamas were now soaking in the surrounding water. She was very surprised to hear his chuckle as she hoisted him to his feet. She gave him a confused look as Mulder glanced up at her. "Why are you…" She was cut off by a small shove and suddenly, she was sitting in the water, the white cotton of her pyjamas completely soaked through and water dripping from her darkened hair.

Mulder's chuckle morphed into a raucous laugh. Dana attempted to glare at him, but the noise was so infectious that she began to giggle to0, accepting his hand when he offered it to help her up again.

"Now we're even," he laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I might be along soon with another chapter, but I'll have to see how heavy my workload is. I might change this chapter, but at the moment I am quite happy with it as a start.
> 
> As a side note, I have no idea what it is actually like living in Quonochontaug and Rhode Island in general. I am from the UK and the internet can only aid me to a point. Google is a marvellous thing, but it doesn't tell me what it is actually like living in a place, so yeah.  
> If I make any significant errors, correct me, but ultimately, I probably won't change it. Give me creative license XD
> 
> ~Leo


End file.
